PC Gamer grills Mark Lamia about Call of Duty: Black Ops II, asking the studio head at Treyarch about the just-revealed first-person shooter sequel, focusing on questions about the PC edition. This doesn't yield a lot of concrete answers, as he effectively dodges the question about dedicated servers, saying "we haven’t yet announced exactly what that setup is going to be." He does speak of how this uncertainty related to cheat prevention, and how their aggressive development cycle does not include time for beta testing, but also defers questions about LAN support, though he does speak of eSports support, which would obviously benefit from things like LAN support and dedicated servers.

Draugr wrote on May 2, 2012, 21:24: Not adding a single player component to every game would make people relize how little effort they actually put between iterations. People are currently paying for the same/similar MP experience every year (as was said, this is where most people spend time in the game) not including some flashy SP is going to highlight that fact.

Indeed, it's the same reason that Madden markets a bunch of "new" features every year to distract from the roster updates.

Flatline wrote on May 2, 2012, 19:47:What I don't understand is why they don't just bite the fucking bullet and make it multiplayer only.

I honestly can't tell you much about Black Ops campaign, except that Castro was in it briefly, and that's because the game slowed down and shoved that in our faces. Oh, and there were WW2 soviets I think. Or something. And Jungle. That's my memory of BO single player. And I played through it twice.

At this point I might be more interested in CoD if they ditched single player and made some massive steps forward in Multiplayer, which is where the longevity of the game is at anyway.

Oh, also, killstreak perks suck from a paradigm perspective. I'll just say it. Rewarding players who are already skilled with the easy button of killing more dudes is frustrating if you're not particularly good.

Not adding a single player component to every game would make people relize how little effort they actually put between iterations. People are currently paying for the same/similar MP experience every year (as was said, this is where most people spend time in the game) not including some flashy SP is going to highlight that fact.

What I don't understand is why they don't just bite the fucking bullet and make it multiplayer only.

I honestly can't tell you much about Black Ops campaign, except that Castro was in it briefly, and that's because the game slowed down and shoved that in our faces. Oh, and there were WW2 soviets I think. Or something. And Jungle. That's my memory of BO single player. And I played through it twice.

At this point I might be more interested in CoD if they ditched single player and made some massive steps forward in Multiplayer, which is where the longevity of the game is at anyway.

Oh, also, killstreak perks suck from a paradigm perspective. I'll just say it. Rewarding players who are already skilled with the easy button of killing more dudes is frustrating if you're not particularly good.

AnointedSword wrote on May 2, 2012, 17:05:The evil corporations are at it again! Gasp! How dare they make money off of games that they work on! Greedy! Vote for Obama so we can get our games and skittles for free (or at least until economic collapse!).

With all that said, I will probably buy this game.

If people didn't want to support developers/publishers then they'd just pirate everything and save themselves the money. The reality is that gamers WANT to support the industry and people here hate it when shitty companies like Activision rehash games with the same engine, a pathetically short singleplayer, the same multiplayer and charge over-the-odds for it, all the while fucking over PC gamers by not taking advantage of the platform or simply offering a token gesture.

Skyrim offered dramatically more content for a lower price, as well as better support and excellent community tools. They also discounted the game early on and have generally respected the community. Same with The Witcher 2 and the extra content they put out for free. If you want to support shitty publishers putting out overpriced shitty games then all I can say is fuck you for making the games industry a soulless corporate monstrosity.

AnointedSword wrote on May 2, 2012, 17:05:The evil corporations are at it again! Gasp! How dare they make money off of games that they work on! Greedy! Vote for Obama so we can get our games and skittles for free (or at least until economic collapse!).

With all that said, I will probably buy this game.

Shouldn't you be banging some rocks together someplace?

“That's it. You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college!”

The evil corporations are at it again! Gasp! How dare they make money off of games that they work on! Greedy! Vote for Obama so we can get our games and skittles for free (or at least until economic collapse!).

DangerDog wrote on May 2, 2012, 15:22:I love it when they answer questions about the PC platform and act all clueless about features that will or won't be in the game, it's like the PC version is being coded on another planet with month long transmission times for communication. The reality is that it's one cubicle over from where they're making the console version.

Yeah, but most likely that cubicle has a whiteboard with a list of features split into three groups - likely, possible, cut.

The reality is that it's one cubicle over from where they're making the console version.

That sounded so much cooler when I read it as, "it's one Crucible over from where they're making the console version."

I immediately started seeing a war raging between two gigantic crucibles, arrows screaming through the air, Wildfire exploding on the walls, the war drums from Lord of the Rings playing in the back ground.

Then I read it again...oh....cubicle...so much less exciting. I'm listening to the Game of Thrones books on tape right now and everything is beginning to blur into scenes in those books. I even bust out phrases and start rhyming my speech at times, this is an amazing experience. I highly recommend Audible.com and those audio books. Costs $20 a book and I believe the first one ends up being free with a new membership but omg it's sooo fucking good.

I love it when they answer questions about the PC platform and act all clueless about features that will or won't be in the game, it's like the PC version is being coded on another planet with month long transmission times for communication. The reality is that it's one cubicle over from where they're making the console version.

Admittedly, Treyarch has catered well to the PC users, unlike Infinity Ward. But the dodged questions about dedicated servers really does send a message that their business strategy has shifted to the console market and that PC players will suffer with the next BO title.

Even if they gave us the same dedicated server model as Black Ops currently uses that would be better than what Infinity Ward has given us. Peer 2 peer gaming sucks, and does NOTHING to prevent cheating in the short term, if at all.

DONE with the Call of Duty series. Hoping that EA can pickup the ball with the next MOH and give us PC players what we need, instead of lies.